Living Black History
Jan 28, 2010 Legends, Today's Stars
Tonight, I had the pleasure of speaking with a Blues Legend. Drink Small has been making music for well over 50 years and he shows no signs of slowing down. During our conversation we played and sang for me, told jokes and shared some of his very language “Drinkism”. It was a delight speaking to him.
If you don’t know who he is, here’s part of our history: “The Blues Doctor”, who has been entertaining music lovers since the mid 1950s.
Drink Small (his real name) was born in 1933 in Bishopville (Lee County), SC. Known worldwide as “The Blues Doctor”, he plays virtuoso blues guitar, two-fisted piano, and sings in an inimitable basso profundo voice.
Drink is a recipient of the S.C. Folk Heritage Award, a member of the S.C. Hall of Fame, and has spent his life touring, recording, and playing a spectrum of Southern roots musics. He has performed at some of the nation’s top music festivals – Chicago Blues Festival (twice), New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (three times), King Biscuit Blues Festival (twice), Smithsonian-Folklife Festival, Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, Lincoln Center and Central Park concert series (NYC), and every major blues festival in the Southeast. He has been written up in myriad music magazines (downbeat, Metronome, Blues Revue, Il Blues, Juke Blues, Soul Bag, Blues News) and even made the cover of Living Blues (July/August, 1992 issue).
At the age of 76, Drink Small is at the top of his game and performing better than ever. Always creating new music, his latest opus is a tribute to President Barack Obama: “The United States Will Never Be the Same” (2009; CD single, ONLY available from Drink Small). He performs solo (acoustic or electric) and with his band. Drink Small will be a guest on Conversations on February 20, 2010.
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Tags: blues, doctor, drikism, drink small, guitarist, Old School, songwriter
